Last week I published an analysis of the Twitter profile pictures of MFAs(ministries of foreign affairs). I argued that such images may be a form of Selfie Diplomacy as profile pictures enable social media users to construct an online identity and communicate that identity to their networks.

This week I endeavored to analyze the Twitter profile pictures of world leader. Notably, I analyzed leaders’ personal account rather than their institutional ones (i.e., @BarackObama rather than @POTUS). The reason for this choice was an attempt to understand if such accounts are used for international or intra-national purposes.

“Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, has made an impassioned argument in favor of net neutrality in Europe, calling on European citizens to stop legislation that could see the creation of so-called internet “fast lanes.”

Coalitions of actors – scholars, activists, some politicians, and even some captains of industry, will need to collaborate if the pathway we are following to a calculated, unequal future is to change.

Algorithmic drawing X11. Flickr/ Brett Renfer. Some rights reserved.This presentation is organised around three keywords: Surveillance, Power and Communication. Another keyword is algorithm. This keyword was omitted from my original title – perhaps there was a worry that this talk would be very technical. It won’t be.